an icelandic perspective
My whole company is going on a mystery trip tomorrow, starting in the afternoon. Finnur, who works at the company, is having a housewarming party at his new place tonight. When I asked another work buddy Óli if he was planning on going to the housewarming tonight he said, "No way, I can't get blindfullur [blind drunk] two nights in a row." This is illustrative of the Icelandic perspective: here people make the tacit assumption that the end result of just about any social gathering is blind drunkenness. This goes for grannies on down to teenagers. Drinking just a little less doesn't seem to be an option.
posted by JB at 26.5.06
4 Comments:
Hmmm. I had thought that well-lubricated element of the film Reykjavik 101 was just an over-the-top (and I don't mean Stallone arm wrestling) representation of life in Iceland. Turns out to be somewhat true.
Is Gatorade rationed each morning?
-cK
Yeah, it is definitely true. It is even more true far from 101 Reykjavík, in the smaller communities: Vestmannaeyjar, Vík, Stykkishólmur, Ísafjörður...
I wish it weren't true. I think the government doesn't do people any favors by making alcohol so artificially pricey. This paradoxically makes it seem more precious and (I think) leads to a culture of irresponsible binge drinking.
Sounds like there must be a vast body of unique Icelandic hangover cures for you to share!
Sigvaldi is right, at least about the pools. I hadn't heard those statistics about alchohol-related health issues, but the best cure I know of is the steam room in the pool at Hveragerði, situated directly above the steam-breathing fissure that feeds it.
Skrifa ummæli
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